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We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

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Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#21

Post by ummonk »

abeppu wrote: post #19

The ending of this makes it sound super clean. 3 ms * speed of light => ~560 miles. "It all makes sense!" But ... isn't the speed of light through fiber actually like 2/3 of the speed of light in a vacuum? And that fiber isn't going to be laid out in a straight line exactly to the destination. So I think really there must have been a fair bit of uncertainty around that ~3ms to abort a connection.

Was gonna say. Speed of light through cables or fiber optics is roughly 2/3 the speed of light through vacuum. Also I don't see how it would know it has established a connection until the round-trip has happened. All in all, it probably waited more like 10 ms, if this story were true, which it probably isn't.

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#22

Post by surround »

Source:

https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail.html

FAQ about the story:

https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html

Past submissions:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

(It seems I can’t find a search query which includes both urls)

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#23

Post by tempestn »

anamexis wrote: post #4
cbhl wrote: post #2

Previously: 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18675375 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9338708

A few more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12778904 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21578606 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16384158 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16285093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12997568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3802458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123489 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=385068 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2701063…

Ha, I was just thinking if one wanted to farm karma they could just set up a cron to post this monthly. Seems to be a perennial favorite!

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#24

Post by dheera »

davidkuhta wrote: post #8

Hat tip to @nfriedly from back in 2011: FYI units on OS X doesn't recognize millilightseconds, but you can do this: You have: 3 lightyears / 365 / 24 / 60 / 60 / 1000 You want: miles * 559.21802 / 0.0017882113

You can also type "3/1000 lightseconds to miles" in Google.

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#27

Post by comex »

abeppu wrote: post #19

The ending of this makes it sound super clean. 3 ms * speed of light => ~560 miles. "It all makes sense!" But ... isn't the speed of light through fiber actually like 2/3 of the speed of light in a vacuum? And that fiber isn't going to be laid out in a straight line exactly to the destination. So I think really there must have been a fair bit of uncertainty around that ~3ms to abort a connection.

The FAQ addresses this:

https://www.ibiblio.org/harris/500milemail-faq.html

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#28

Post by dredmorbius »

akeruu wrote: post #12
anamexis wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12778904 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21578606 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16384158 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16285093 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12997568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3802458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123489 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=385068 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2701063…

Yes, this story gets posted a lot, and many of us might know it, but at the same time, I like to think about the ones that didn't. They will learn something new today. XKCD said it better than I could: https://xkcd.com/1053/

Genuine perennial favs are worth repeating every so often --- a year or two's interval seems reasonable, and is vouched by HN.

A marker of aging for me was seeing, a decade or two after I'd first read them in the local paper as a callow youth, repeats of previous features, by topic if not the actual text. Eventually the thought occurred to me that perhaps the versions I'd remembered were themselves not original.

People tell, and repeat, and embellish, stories. Sometimes because the young'uns and whippersnappers and new arrivals haven't heard them yet. Sometimes because they're just damned good stories and we enjoy the retelling.

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#29

Post by dredmorbius »

davidkuhta wrote: post #8

Hat tip to @nfriedly from back in 2011: FYI units on OS X doesn't recognize millilightseconds, but you can do this: You have: 3 lightyears / 365 / 24 / 60 / 60 / 1000 You want: miles * 559.21802 / 0.0017882113

GNU units is available through Homebrew, and does.
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